The GOP’s most outspoken proponent of comprehensive immigration reform let loose in an interview with reporters here, detailing quiet efforts to draft far-reaching legislation, saying House leadership is “committed” to bringing the hot-button topics on the floor and criticizing President Obama for carrying out too many deportations.

“We’re the party of deportation? Look at this president’s numbers!” Rep. Jeff Denham said.

The California Republican says he is part of a working group laying the ground work to bring forward comprehensive immigration reform, and that top-ranking Republicans are supportive of addressing the full gamut of immigration topics in legislation in 2015.

“I think leadership’s commitment is not only to bring up immigration reform, but to bring it up in multiple different bills. The question is the timing of that and the sequence of those bills,” Denham said.

“We’ve gotta be able to discuss the DREAMers, the 11.5 million that are here today, as well as a Guest Worker program, in the overall discussion of border security,” Denham said, later adding, “We’ve had a working group for quite some time on the various pieces of immigration on doing everything from a comprehensive bill to a step-by-step approach, but finding out who in our conference is actually open to debate and discussion.”

President Obama declared Tuesday in his State of the Union address that the “shadow of crisis has passed,” as he touted economic gains and the end of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars under his administration.

The president, in his opening remarks, stressed improvements in employment and even domestic oil production.

While he said many are still having a “hard time,” Obama added: “Tonight, we turn the page.”

In his address, Obama is touting what he calls “middle-class economics” as the engine for growth, and using that argument to push an ambitious – and controversial -- new tax plan.

Conservative movement leaders are unveiling the mandate they say Republicans have heading into this new Congress, after voters gave them a majority in both the House and Senate for the first time during President Obama’s tenure.

The document, obtained exclusively by Breitbart News, details how the conservative leaders expect Republicans in Congress to “stop” Obama’s “fundamental transformation of America,” something they say the American people made clear in the 2014 midterm elections with such resounding GOP victories.

“The November 2014 election was a repudiation of the complicity of the United States Congress in President Obama’s dramatic and unconstitutional expansion of government,” the document’s introduction reads, before listing several major expectations the American people have of Republicans as this new Congress begins.

(January 20, 2015) – The Ocean City Public Safety Building lobby has housed a permanent 24-hour drug drop-box since May of 2012. In 2014, 264 pounds of unused and unwanted medications, including controlled pain medications, depressants and stimulants, were turned in to the drop box. These turned-in medications have a street value of nearly $15,000.

Another permanent drug take back drop-box is located at the Ocean Pines Police Department. Combined, the two drop boxes yielded a total of 734 pounds of medication containing 11,247 controlled pills having a street value of over $45,000.

“The drop box was donated to the Ocean City Police Department in May 2012 by the Ocean City Elks Lodge and has served as a safe place for citizens to bring their unused and unwanted medications ensuring that the medications never end up on the streets of Ocean City,” said Chief Ross Buzzuro. “We strongly encourage citizens to take their unwanted medications to the drop box and not flush their medication or throw them away. Disposing of medication properly prevents the medication from entering our waterways and landfills.”

The Maryland Executive Board members of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators (NADDI) have hailed this effort as a success in keeping unwanted and unused prescription drugs out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them as well as out of Maryland coastal bays and waterways.

If you have any questions or would like more information about this free and confidential program, please contact the OCPD Public Affairs Office at 410-520-5395.

Foods like turmeric, garlic, and even chocolate received more than enough recognition to become large parts of countless individual’s diets. But there were indeed other foods that made a grand presence in 2014 – the avocado is one of them.

Often deemed a “perfect food,” the avocado is considered one of the healthiest foods available. Even a study published in Nutrition Journal found that eating avocados is associated with a lower body weight, lower BMI and waist circumference (a risk factor for heart disease and diabetes), higher “good” cholesterol, a lower intake of added sugars, better diet quality overall, and higher nutrient intake levels. In other words, those who eat avocados are healthier than those who don’t.

Many consider this prolific green fruit, vegetable, and nut combined a superfood, and for good reason. Here are 5 reasons to eat this fabulous food.

(January 20, 2015) --- The intersection of US 50 (Ocean Gateway) at Hobbs Road (just east of the Salisbury Bypass) in Salisbury will be temporarily closed to traffic for multiple 15 minute intervals to enable Delmarva Power to install new power lines on a nearby overhead structure. The temporary lane closures will occur on Saturday, January 24, from Midnight to 5 a.m., according to the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA).

No detours will be established during the temporary lane closures. Maryland State Police will be onsite throughout the duration of the 15-minute lane closures at the intersection. The rain date for the removal of the power lines is the following morning, Sunday, January 25, from Midnight to 5 a.m.

Anyone with questions about railroad crossings on state highways should contact Gee Williams, SHA District Community Liaison at gwilliams10@sha.state.md.us or phone 443-463-7141. Questio

Saudi Arabian authorities publicly beheaded a woman in the holy city of Mecca after a court convicted her of sexually abusing and murdering her stepdaughter. The kingdom has executed nine people only two weeks into the new year.

The video made rounds on YouTube, but the company removed it since it violated policy. It showed men dragging Laila Bint Abdul Muttalib Basim, a Burmese resident, through the streets. Then four police officers commenced to “hold the woman down before a sword-wielding man slices her head off, using three blow to complete the act.” Basim screamed, “I did not kill! I did not kill!” the entire time. The men killed her without painkillers.

“One way is to inject the prisoner with painkillers to numb the pain and the other is without the painkiller,” said Mohammed al-Saeedi, a human rights activist. “This woman was beheaded without painkillers – they wanted to make the pain more powerful for her.”

Kirchmaier earned the distinction of being the social networking site's oldest member when her friends at the medical aid charity Direct Relief signed her up for an account on her 105th birthday. It took the site's engineers a month to verify her age and fix the glitch, something they'd never had to do before, Direct Relief's spokeswoman Kerri Murray said.

Last year, she was designated the site’s second-oldest user after 114-year-old Anna Stoehr of Plainview, Minnesota, signed up for an account. Sadly, Stoehr passed away last month.

Born in 1908, 49 years before the Internet was invented, Kirchmaier said she embraces social media because it allows her to check in daily with friends and family. She's also used her status to raise awareness for causes she believes in, such as Direct Relief.

A woman beheaded in a Saudi street for killing her husband's six-year-old daughter screams her innocence in graphic footage of the execution uploaded to the Internet.

An executioner in Mecca, the holy city, took two swings to hack off Layla bint Abdul Mutaleb Bassim's head, after she was found guilty of beating the girl and raping her with a broomstick.

The incident has sparked outrage in the country, but not because of the brutal punishment meted out. Rather Saudis are up in arms that the execution was filmed and posted online, where the woman's family might see it.

PEMBERTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey woman who authorities say put her newborn baby in the middle of a road and set the child on fire was charged Saturday with murder.

Burlington County prosecutors said Hyphernkemberly Dorvilier, 22, of Pemberton Township was jailed on $500,000 bail. It wasn’t known if she has retained a lawyer.

Police responded to a Friday night call about a fire in the middle of a residential road in the township, about 30 miles east of Philadelphia. Officers found the baby in flames and put out the fire.

The child reportedly was alive and breathing at the time she was flown to a hospital in Philadelphia, said Joel Bewley, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. She died about two hours later, he said in a news release. An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.

Authorities believe the mother doused her baby with an accelerant then set her on fire, Bewley said. They do not have a motive. The woman was taken into custody Friday night.

BREAKING NEWS: Sinkhole Reported On Route 90 More traffic headaches for Route 90 motorists today as a sinkhole has been reported in the eastbound lane near the St. Martin's River span. Traffic is currently being rerouted. Motorists have been dealing with restricted lanes the last couple weeks as inspection work takes place over the eastern-most span that goes over the Assawoman Bay. That inspection takes place from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. until Jan. 29, weather permitting.

UPDATE: Route 90 Sinkhole Repairs Could Last Into WednesdayCharlene Sharpe, Staff WriterOCEAN CITY – Motorists are advised to avoid Route 90 heading into Ocean City as State Highway Administration crews patch a hole that developed at the St. Martin’s Neck Road intersection.The eastbound lane of Route 90 has been closed since 1 p.m. Tuesday when a hole appeared in the roadway. State Highway Administration crews are on the scene and plan to repair road with steel plates and cold patch. The lane closure could last as long as 24 hours.“It depends on what they assess there,” said SHA spokesman Charlie Gischlar.He said the work being done Tuesday was a short-term fix that would serve until a contractor was hired to make more extensive repairs to the road. Gischlar said he was not sure what caused the hole.“The rising and falling tides over time could have led to part of it,” he said.He advises drivers using Route 90 to enter Ocean City to be cautious and allow extra time to reach their destinations. Even after the hole is repaired, there will be single lane closures in the area as SHA crews perform a routine bridge inspection. That will be taking place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is expected to last until Jan. 29.

As subzero temperatures hit Chicago, the violence continues. Between Friday afternoon and Saturday evening one was killed and six others were shot in the Windy City.

Three of those involved in the violence were teenagers, one of whom died, police report.

On Friday evening, 17-year-old Walter L. Wright was shot as he stood on a sidewalk in the city’s south side Gage Park neighborhood. Wright, a known gang member, was shot multiple times. One of the wounds was a fatal shot to the chest.

Early Saturday morning, a 20-year-old man and two teens were shot as they sat in a van in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. The three were shot at by unknown parties in a car driving down West Lake Street.

BALTIMORE —Finding out you have breast cancer is difficult enough. Then you have to decide what to do about it.

A recent study from Vanderbilt University Medical Center revealed that more American women diagnosed with early cancers are now choosing to have mastectomies.

Jodi Simpkins has a family history of breast cancer. She was diagnosed twice with the disease after mammograms spotted suspicious areas within six months of each other, leading to two separate lumpectomies. But that was only the beginning.

"I was sent for another treatment, radiation, hormone therapy and I met with many doctors, and was advised that I'm very young to be facing this. It's not going to go away even with treatment, so at that time I, decided to go forward with a double mastectomy," Simpkins said.More

The gun enthusiast who nearly killed his small town's police chief last week is a free man since cops couldn't find enough evidence to charge him and keep him behind bars.

Sentinel, Oklahoma Police Chief Louis Ross was shot four times that morning while raiding a house in connection to a bomb threat at a school, and only survived thanks to a bullet-proof vest he borrowed at the last minute.

Since he hasn't been officially charged, police have refused to officially name the man who shot Chief Ross, but the town's mayor has identified him as resident Dallas Horton.

Before it was taken down, a Facebook page appearing to belong to Horton was littered with racially-charged posts making his shooting of African-American Ross even more sensitive.

Since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, the dollar has lost over 97 percent of its purchasing power, the US economy has been subjected to a series of painful Federal Reserve-created recessions and depressions, and government has grown to dangerous levels thanks to the Fed's policy of monetizing the debt. Yet the Federal Reserve still operates under a congressionally-created shroud of secrecy.

No wonder almost 75 percent of the American public supports legislation to audit the Federal Reserve.

The new Senate leadership has pledged to finally hold a vote on the audit bill this year, but, despite overwhelming public support, passage of this legislation is by no means assured.

The reason it may be difficult to pass this bill is that the 25 percent of Americans who oppose it represent some of the most powerful interests in American politics. These interests are working behind the scenes to kill the bill or replace it with a meaningless "compromise." This "compromise" may provide limited transparency, but it would still keep the American people from learning the full truth about the Fed's conduct of monetary policy.

"Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer seemed as skeptical as anyone about whether President Barack Obama's plan to propose tax increases of $320 billion is actually something the White House believes will happen under a Republican-led Congress when he asked Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer about it on Sunday's program.

"Do you in any way, shape or form believe that a new Republican Congress is going to do what a Congress that had Democrats and Republicans in control would not do?" Schieffer said. "I mean, is this for real? Do you really think there is a chance that something like this could pass?"

The Department of Health and Human Services is touting its handling of last summer’s massive influx of unaccompanied alien children in an end-of-year report, despite the fact that its own failures worsened the situation.

Nearly 58,000 unaccompanied alien children arrived before the end of fiscal year 2014, almost as many as arrived in the past five years combined, according to the report from HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement.

“ORR and its partners worked tirelessly throughout the summer influx, addressing emergent medical issues and implementing protocols to prevent backlogs in placements, to ensure that the children received appropriate medical screening and care,” the report says. “Faced with unprecedented numbers of children arriving at [Department of Homeland Security] border patrol stations faster than space could be found in the network to accommodate them, the team worked tirelessly and creatively around the clock to clear the backlogs at over-crowded border patrol stations, and move the children quickly and safely into appropriate shelter beds.”

Did you hear about the Muslim man who dressed up like a woman in a burka, had two knives strapped to his legs, and tried to board an airplane and hijack it right in the center of America’s heartland recently? Of course you haven’t, have you? And the reasons why are going to shock, but not really surprise you.

In the first week of January, 2015, a black American Muslim (and gee, now we know why you’re not hearing about this, do we not?), dressed up like a female Muslim, via simply donning a burka and tried to board a plane in Columbus, Ohio at Port Columbus International Airport. The man was acting nervous in a way that “was consistent to the behavior of a terrorist,” according to police records and was denied the right to board.

He left the airport and police confronted this suspicious individual in the parking lot of the airport. It was only then, when the man attacked police with a knife and was shot dead, that his true identity was found out. The man’s name was Hashim Hanif Ibn Abdul-Rasheed, and he is pictured below.

Will use State of the Union address to target top earners, investment, inheritance

President Obama plans to call for billions in tax increases on top earners – including a hike in investment tax rates — in order to fund new tax credits and other measures the White House claims will help the middle class.

The president’s proposals, which also include eliminating a tax break on inheritances, are likely to be cheered by the Democratic Party’s liberal base when they are announced Tuesday night in his State of the Union address. However, the tax increases are all but certain to be non-starters with the new Republican majority on Capitol Hill.

The president’s address — his first to a Republican-led Congress — will call for $320 billion in tax increases over 10 years. Aside from funding new tax credits including a tax credit for working families and expanding the child care tax credit, the White House says that money would go to funding measures to make college more afforable and accessible, including the president’s recently announced plan to make community college free for many students.

The centerpiece of the president’s tax proposal is an increase in the capital gains and dividends rate on couples making more than $500,000 per year to 28 percent, the same level as under President Ronald Reagan. The top capital gains rate has already been raised from 15 percent to 23.8 percent during Obama’s presidency.

DEVELOPING: Boston police responded to a shooting Tuesday morning inside the Brigham and Women’s hospital where at least one person was shot, authorities said.

The suspect is in custody and the gun has been recovered, Boston Police tweeted. The Boston Globe reported that the victim is a doctor at the hospital. The victim has life-threatening injuries, MyFoxBoston.com reported. The shooter was also injured.

Those Americans who didn’t get health insurance last year could be in for a rude awakening when the IRS asks them to fork over their Obamacare penalty — and it could be a lot more than the $95 many of them may be expecting.

The Affordable Care Act requires those who didn’t have insurance last year and didn’t qualify for one of the exemptions to pay a tax penalty, which was widely cited as $95 the first year. But the $95 is actually a minimum, and middle- and upper-income families will actually end up paying 1 percent of their household income as their penalty.

Wicomico County is pleased to announce the bids for the Morris Mill Urban Service District Elevated Water Tank and Distribution Lines projects have been awarded and construction begins this month. A Groundbreaking Ceremony will be January 27, 2015 at 9:00 am at the future elevated water tank site at the end of Slab Bridge Road in Fruitland MD.

The Morris Mill Water System project will provide public, potable water and fire protection to 273 homes by extending public drinking water from the City of Fruitland. Grants from the USDepartment of Agriculture Rural Development and Maryland Department of the Environment are funding the project for a total project cost is $8 million. Water is estimated to be available toresidents in the summer fall of 2015 with all construction work completed by winter of 2016.

A tech tycoon, his wife and their four grandchildren were killed after a devastating blaze ripped through their Annapolis mansion in the early hours of Monday, a local headteacher has confirmed.

Emergency crews in Annapolis were scrambled to the blaze at the waterfront home of Don Pyle, a former CEO, but were unable to save the couple and the children.

Pyle, 56, lived in the 16,000sq ft home with his wife Sandra and their two adult sons. Authorities are yet to confirm the deaths but a local headteacher sent out a letter to staff and students on Tuesday confirming the family had been killed.

Severn School headmaster Douglas Lagarde announced the school would be closed on Tuesday out of respect for the tragedy, The Capital reported. It is assumed but not confirmed that the grandchildren were enrolled at the Lower School of the $17,770 a year private prep school.

'Tomorrow will be the first of many opportunities we, as a School, will provide for our kids to come together, and I emphasize, if they feel the need to,' Lagarde wrote in the letter obtained by the local newspaper.

It came as criminal investigators pored over the ruins of the house for any signs the blaze could have been arson. Specialists with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives now say the fire is 'suspicious' - partly because of how quickly it ravaged the home.

BALTIMORE —Maryland's budget deficit has grown, and Gov.-elect Larry Hogan will inherit a $767 million shortfall next fiscal year.

Before leaving office, Gov. Martin O'Malley released suggestions on where Hogan could find some savings. The Hogan administration said it is not familiar with the suggestions and that it is focused on what O'Malley did to reduce spending.

"The biggest threat to us (is) those revenue writedowns," O'Malley said Friday.

The state's budget deficit is growing bigger by the month. The initial $750 million has jumped to $766.9 million. O'Malley cited low tax revenues from what he characterizes as an underperforming private sector, and he blames Congress.

The result of infusing colleges with billions of dollars in additional funds will be to raise the cost of a college education even higher ― just as student loans and federal grants have encouraged wasteful spending by colleges and universities across the country. The open spigot of federal money continues to flow, mostly in the form of guaranteed student loans. These institutions are charging higher tuition rates because they can rely on receiving guaranteed money from the government. Because of these practices, student debt has reached $1 trillion, surpassing credit cards and car loans as the largest source of debt in the country, and there is growing evidence this is creating a “student loan bubble.”

The government’s intervention in the health care sector should have warned us of the cost-increasing effects that result from government involvement. Just as health care costs spiraled out of control after the government began Medicaid and Medicare, so too are education costs rising much faster than other consumer prices. In fact, according to College Board, tuition and fees jumped 27 percent between the 2008-2009 and 2013-2014 school years.1They have increased nearly 160 percent since 1990 (after adjusting for inflation).

One would expect that with more public funding, schools wouldn’t have to increase their tuition rates. At the very least, the higher cost should mean the education received is better. However, a look at where the money goes raises some concern about how institutions of higher education are using their funds.

Scientists have discovered a new antibiotic, teixobactin, that can kill serious infections in mice without encountering any detectable resistance, offering a potential new way to get ahead of dangerous evolving superbugs.

The new antibiotic was discovered in a sample of soil.

The research is "ingenious," Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, told The New York Times.

Researchers said the antibiotic, which has yet to be tested in humans, could one day be used to treat drug-resistant infections caused by the superbug MRSA, as well as tuberculosis, which normally requires a combination of drugs that can have adverse side effects.

"The discovery of this novel compound challenges long-held scientific beliefs and holds great promise for treating an array of menacing infections," said Kim Lewis, a professor at Northeastern University and co-founder of the NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals, which has patented teixobactin.

Still, experts urged caution. Though the researchers said they didn't see signs of poisoning in the mice treated with teixobactin, antibiotics that show promise in mice are often toxic to humans.

More than 130,000 pages of Air Force UFO files are now online. Air Force Times reports UFO enthusiast John Greenewald posted records from Project Blue Book on his online database, called "The Black Vault."

The Blue Book contains Air Force files on UFO sightings and investigations. The Air Force recorded more than 12,000 sightings of strange phenomena in the 1950s and 60s. But it stopped investigations after concluding that the sightings didn't pose a threat to national security.

Greenewald spent nearly 20 years filing Freedom of Information Act requests for government data on UFOs. He says his webpage is the first time the files are posted online in a searchable database.

Thursday, February 12, 6-9 PM at Buckingham Elementary School, 100 Buckingham Road. Babysitting is offered during the meeting (drop-off 1/2 hour before) at Worcester Youth and Family Counseling, 124 N. Main Street. Immediately following the Meeting, join us at the Welcome Center, 14 S. Main Street for light refreshments.

President Barack Obama will call for free community college, improving access to broadband Internet and paid sick leave for workers when he addresses Congress tonight in his seventh State of the Union speech.

Sure, you could watch it on TV. Even You Tube or Google Plus. But the White House is hoping you'll use its website, where it is rolling out what it calls "A River of Content." It says it will provide state-by-state and demographic data in real time.

Tomorrow, White House officials will hold a daylong Q&A on social media. They're calling it the Big Block of Cheese Day.

Ah yes, Detroit muscle. American automobile ingenuity at its finest. I’m talking 1960s era Chevys, Fords, and Mopars, and I’m talking ones that go fast. Ok, I expect the typical Listverse flak about this list being “too American”, but cry me a river. If someone wants to do a European Sports Car list, more power to ya, but these machines are my idea of heaven on four wheels.

This is of course not a definitive list but before you comment, please note: you’ll find no pony-cars here, my friends. Maybe I’ll do a follow-up list of Camaros, Mustangs, etc. if this one is well received, but for this one I wanted to profile the more humble looking street machines. And sorry, I love ‘em, but in my world ‘vettes are “sports cars”, not muscle cars, so that marque is likewise omitted. And so without further ado, here are ten of my favorite muscle machines, right down to specific model-years that are of special appeal to collectors and enthusiasts. And yes, they are in no particular order (well maybe slight consideration) so don’t obsess about the ranking.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has laughed off allegations that his team used illegal deflated footballs in their 45-7 thrashing of the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship game on Sunday night.

In a Monday morning radio interview with WEEI, Brady was still riding high on clinching his record sixth trip to the Super Bowl and refused to comment on the NFL's investigation of whether his team at doctored game balls so they were easier to catch and throw.

'I think I’ve heard it all at this point,' he said today.

'That’s the last of my worries. I don’t even respond to stuff like this.'

The NFL has confirmed it is investigating the case. Footage from the Fox Sports broadcast shows referees took at least one football out of play on Sunday night. They later turned over the ball to the NFL so officials could weigh it.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Six people remain unaccounted for after a fierce fire gutted a 16,000-square-foot mansion just outside Maryland’s capital early Monday, a fire official said.

The fire was reported about 3:30 a.m. by an alarm monitoring company and a neighbor who saw flames at the mansion near Annapolis, said Capt. Russ Davies, spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.

“From the family, we know who’s unaccounted for,” Davies said, though he declined to say who specifically could not be located. “If you look at the damage, you know, it would not be a stretch to think that if there were occupants that they did not survive the fire.”

Somerset Ghost & Graveyard Bus Tour - Sat. 1/24

Mindie Burgoyne, author of Haunted Eastern Shore and Haunted Ocean City and Berlin will lead a bus tour this Saturday that will feature 4 historic graveyards and over 20 haunted sites in Somerset County. This is one in a series of six bus tours offered by Burgoyne’s company, Chesapeake Ghost Walks taking place during the colder months of the year - January through March. This Saturday’s tour will include sites between Princess Anne and Crisfield including Burgoyne’s own haunted house in Marion Station. Guests will experience most of the tour from the comfort of a luxury motor coach (restroom on board), but will be able to get off the bus and see the graveyards up close as well as some of the sites in Princess Anne.

Famous ghosts & stories featured on the tour: The ghost of Elizabeth Upshur Teackle, Ghost of Judge Sanford, The Hanged Man in Princess Anne, Little Annie Conner and Cry Baby Bridge, Lukes Grave, Old Ailsey’s Light, Little Olive Tull Left Behind, and the Spirit Vortex in Marion.

Advance registration is required for the tour as seats on the bus are limited. Cost of tickets is $29 per person. The tour will meet the bus in Princess Anne at 12:30 pm on Saturday, January 24th and the tour will take approximately 4 hours. Guests will not go inside properties. This tour is a driving tour and includes sites in the “country” not on Burgoyne’s ghost walks of Princess Anne and Crisfield that run from April to December.

GUEST DRAWING FOR BOOK & WALKING TOUR - Those who register for the Somerset Ghost & Graveyard Tour will be entered into a drawing done on the bus at the end of the tour for a copy of Burgoyne’s newest book, Haunted Ocean City & Berlin and a gift certificate for two to any one of the ten Eastern Shore ghost walks offered by Burgoyne’s company, Chesapeake Ghost Walks.

Obama wants to move forward with all of these populist proposals for the poor and middle class, and he wants to do so by taking from the rich in the form of higher taxes on the wealthy and Wall Street.

Few of the proposals are going anywhere with a GOP Congress, but the White House sees Obama’s penultimate State of the Union as the president’s last, best chance to lay down policy markers for the next two years —and to frame the 2016 battle for the White House.

It’s also meant to ensure Obama remains relevant for as long into his presidency as possible.

“I think we should have a debate in this country between middle-class economics and trickle-down economics,” top aide Dan Pfeiffer said on “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“I think, in divided government, each side should lay out their agenda, what they think is in the best interest of the country,” he added.

Those comments signal another aspect of the emerging White House strategy.

A Viewer Writes: And the next day, the president will be interviewed about his speech by three YouTube bloggers — including a California teenager who offers fashion advice and a comedian known for videos like ‘My pushup bra will help me get my man.’”

If plastic water bottles are okay, but plastic bags are banned, — you might live in a nation (state) that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots ?

If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for entering and remaining in the country illegally — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If you have to get your parents’ permission to go on a field trip or to take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If you MUST show your identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor, or check out a library book and rent a video, but not to vote for who runs the government — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If, in the nation’s largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not one 24-ounce soda, because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If an 80-year-old woman who is confined to a wheelchair or a three-year-old girl can be strip-searched by the TSA at the airport, but a woman in a burka or a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If a seven-year-old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his teacher is “cute” but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government regulation and intrusion while not working is rewarded with Food Stamps, WIC checks, Medicaid benefits, subsidized housing, and free cell phones — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If you pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big-screen TV, while your neighbor buys iPhones, time shares, a wall-sized do-it-all plasma screen TV and new cars, and the government forgives his debt when he defaults on his mortgage — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If being stripped of your Constitutional right to defend yourself makes you more “safe” according to the government — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

Seaford - The Delaware State Police have arrested a 26-year-old Seaford man after he broke into a house and assaulted a 60-year-old female homeowner.

On Monday January 19, 2015, around 12:16 p.m. the 60-year-old female victim was sitting in the living room of her house located in the 26000 block of Bethel Concord Road whenJesse Dudley, 26 of Seaford, entered the residence uninvited and unannounced. The victim was familiar with the Dudley through a family relative when he had been in her residence on a previous occasion. Once inside the house, Dudley grabbed a handgun from a stand in the living room and pointed it at the female victim, demanding her to lie on the ground. When she refused, he grabbed her out of the chair she was sitting in and forced her to the ground as well as throwing a cordless phone located nearby to another room in order to prevent her from calling for help, all while demanding her money.

Dudley then removed a second firearm located in the living room and then made his way to the female's bedroom where he began ransacking her items. As the victim slowly made her way to the bedroom, she was again confronted by Dudley and forcefully thrown to the ground causing a minor injury to her arm. He then pointed the gun at her, threatened to kill her, and then moved it away before firing one round which struck her bed. Dudley then fled the residence with a .22 caliber revolver, .40 caliber handgun, .22 caliber rifle, prescription medication, U.S. currency, and a video game system.

Numerous troopers as well as DSP Aviation (Trooper 2) and officers from the Blades Police Department established a perimeter in a two mile radius of the residence and were able to take Dudley into custody near the Cool Branch Development around 3:50 p.m. without further incident. He was transported to Troop 4 in Georgetown where he was charged with Robbery 1st, Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony, Home Invasion, three counts of Possession of a Firearm by a Person Prohibited, Aggravated Menacing, Reckless Endangering 1st, three counts of Theft of a Firearm, Terroristic Threatening, two counts of Theft under $1,500.00, and Malicious Interference with Emergency Communications. He was arraigned at JP2 and committed to Sussex Correctional Institution on $151,000.00 cash bond.

President Barack Obama has nearly reached the limit to the executive orders he can issue on major policies without the approval of Congress, according to Politico.

The president is preparing for his State of the Union address next week, which will be the first time he will speak in front of the assembly when the GOP controls both the Senate and the House.

Republicans and Democrats alike will be anxious to learn what Obama has to say, due to the difficulty he faces coming up with policy proposals that will pass Congress during his final two years in the Oval Office.

According to Politico, the White House knows that although Obama still may want to "grab the public’s attention," there are only a limited number of executive options he can make without getting the support of Republican lawmakers.

"Want to make community college cheaper? Obama just rolled out a plan to make it free for two years, but he needs Congress to sign off on it, and he’s not going to get that," wrote the political news website’s David Nather.

"Raise the minimum wage? Obama has already issued an executive order to do that for federal contractors, but a federal minimum wage hike is as dead in the new Congress as it was in the last one.

"Universal pre-school? Rebuild the nation’s crumbling bridges and highways? Fix the Voting Rights Act now that the Supreme Court threw out part of it? Nope — he needs Congress for all of those things, too."

It has long been the modus operandi of dieters around the world - cut the fat and opt for 'lighter' foods to try and shift the pounds.

The NHS itself recommends eating plenty of potatoes, bread, rice and pasta with some milk and diary foods, but advises opting for low-fat options.

But now a growing body of evidence is turning the tide on that advice.

A vast collection of studies are changing the dieting landscape, as experts open their eyes to the real enemy targeting our waistlines - carbohydrates.

Now one dietitian, Dr Trudi Deakin, has revealed her diet is 82 per cent fat - and claims she has never felt healthier.

The founder of X-PERT Health, a charity that offers educational programmes on diabetes to NHS professionals, Dr Deakin regularly performs in-depth literature reviews of recent studies to ensure the information they give is up-to-date.

'More and more evidence is coming out in favour of low carbohydrate diets,' she told MailOnline.

A year ago, she was asked to speak at the annual Diabetes UK conference in a debate against another researcher on the topic 'We should stop promoting carbohydrates in people with diabetes'.

Dr Deakin said: 'Traditionally, the advice has been high-carbohydrate, low-fat diets are best.

Friends of freedom often become despondent when it seems that every day brings another growth and intrusion of government over people’s lives. But there is no reason to be disheartened, because there are lessons for winning liberty – from the opponents of freedom.

Beginning in the last decades of the nineteenth century, through most of the twentieth century and into our own time, all ideological, political and economic trends have been in the direction of various forms of collectivism. How did this come about, and what might friends of freedom learn from it?

Let’s take the case of socialism. On March 14, 1883, a German philosopher living in exile in London passed away. When he was buried three days later in a modest grave where his wife had been laid to rest two years earlier, fewer than ten people were present, half of them family members.

His closest friend spoke at the gravesite and said, “Soon the world will feel the void left by the passing of this Titan.” But there was, in fact, little reason to think that the deceased man or his long, turgid, and often obscure writings would leave any lasting impression on the world of ideas or on the course of human events.

LITCHFIELD, N.H. – Rand Paul is not a fan of the United Nations, and on a campaign-style swing through New Hampshire on Wednesday, the likely Republican presidential hopeful said that he would support dissolving the international governing body entirely.

Speaking to a room full of gun rights advocates at the Londonderry Fish & Game Club, Paul said that while the concept of having a multinational body to "discuss diplomacy" isn't necessarily a bad one, he objects to the current structure, in which the United States has to foot "a huge chunk" of the U.N.'s bill.

Now comes bad news for Big Pharma: a scientific study indicates that vitamin D reduces colorectal cancer. This study is a real pain in the butt for Big Pharma.

Researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown in a new study that vitamin D can help the body fight against colorectal cancer by boosting the immune system.

Vitamin D is naturally produced by the body following exposure to sunlight.

The study, published in Gut, contributes to a growing body of research by identifying an association between vitamin D and how the immune system responds to cancer cells among a large human population sample for the first time.

On December 22, 2014 author and filmmaker William Shanley filed a trillion dollar lawsuitagainst several dozen of the world’s most powerful corporate media outlets and figures for what he terms “a multi-year conspiracy,” to “brainwash the public into thinking a lone gunman drill known as the Sandy Hook Massacre was real, when in fact, it was a staged FEMA National Level Exercise Event that redirected government resources to terrorize the public.”

Shanley has not been heard from since December 30 by parties he had been in regular contact with throughout late 2014. Several individuals, including journalists and law enforcement officers, have disappeared or died under unusual circumstances in the two years since the December 2012 incident.-JFT